Friend or Foe?
by ahay929
Summary: Thalia acts like she likes Percy, but is she lying? Takes place RIGHT after Percy meets Thalia in Sea of Monsters.
1. Meeting Thalia

No one moved, not even Chiron. They were all too stunned.

Then the girl took a shaky breath. She coughed and opened her eyes.

Her irises were startlingly blue— electric blue.

The girl stared at me in bewilderment, shivering and wild-eyed. "Who-"

"I'm Percy," I said. "You're safe now."

"Strangest dream..."

"It's okay."

"Dying."

"No," I assured her. "Your okay. What's your name?"

That's when I knew. Even before she said it.

The girl's blue eyes stared into mine, and I understood what the Golden Fleece quest had been about. The poisoning of the tree. Everything. Kronos had done it to bring another chess piece into play- _another chance to control the prophecy._

Even Chiron, Annabeth, and Grover, who should've been celebrating this moment, were too shocked, thinking about what it might mean for the future. And I was holding someone who was destined to be my best friend, or possibly my worst enemy.

"I am Thalia," the girl said. "Daughter of Zeus."

I looked away to see everyone's expression, but it hadn't changed. Their mouths were still wide open. After a few seconds, I realized that my jaw was hanging down, too.

I looked back at Thalia, and then it hit me. Oh my gods, she was beautiful! Her shiny black hair! Her gorgeous blue eyes! I had never seen someone so beautiful!

Words started pouring out of my mouth. "Hi, Thalia! My name is..."

She interrupted me with a giggle and ran her fingers through my hair. "Percy, you already told me your name!" Oh, her smile... although she wore Gothic clothes, her personality was bright and sunny.

Thalia got up and looked at everyone. "What are you all gaping at?" As soon as she said that, everyone was filled with grins as something like a family reunion went on. I didn't know Thalia very well, so I just stood there. I felt like an idiot.

After what seemed like hours, everyone started heading towards the camp. I tried to move, but my legs were stiff, so I could only walk very slowly.

Before I walked one foot, I felt something tap my shoulder. As a natural instinct, I grabbed Riptide out of my pocket, clicked it, and turned around. This all happened in about two seconds.

"Whoa! Watch out there! You could get someone killed!" Thalia said with a look of horror on her face.

My face was tomato red. I put Riptide back in pen form and put it back in my pocket. "Sorry, Thalia, I thought you were something else..."

Thalia chuckled and replied, "Oh, it's fine..."

"So why are you still up here?" I asked her.

"I got to see everyone that I already knew, but I didn't get to meet you yet, Percy!" She answered. Gosh, I was excited. "So, are you a half-blood, too?"

"Yeah. Son of Poseidon."

"That's cool! So can you like, control water?" Thalia was excited, too.

"Sorta... but only if my dad let me."

"Oh, okay..." She sighed and looked away. I wished I lied. She looked towards me again. "Well that's still cool! I've never met a son of the sea god before!" Maybe I was better off telling the truth...

"Well I've never met a daughter of Zeus before!" I said with as much enthusiasm as she had been using throughout our whole conversation.

"I like you, Percy Jackson! I think we'll be great friends!" I hoped she was right.


	2. Where is Annabeth?

I slowly opened my eyes and saw my cabin. How did I get here? The last thing I remember was being on the hill with Thalia. There were a lot of possibilities as to how I got here, but I was too tired to think.

I looked at my clock and it was 5:55. Breakfast was at 6:00. Oh crap.

I rushed to get dressed and brush my teeth. When I got done getting ready, I looked at the clock again and it was 5:59. Oh crap times two...

I ran as fast as I could to the cafeteria, and as soon as I got there, I saw Grover waving to me. I walked over to him, sat down, and saw Thalia. She was sitting right across from me.

She grinned and I smiled back. Grover kept staring back at me and then Thalia multiple times until he finally whispered in my ear, "You got a girlfriend? Nice going, Jackson!"

I pushed him away and looked embarrassed. Thalia laughed as if she heard what Grover said to me.

After a few minutes of silence and eating, I sensed that something was wrong. I stared quickly glancing around, but she wasn't there. "Where's Annabeth?" I blurted out.

Grover stared at me like I was crazy, and Thalia acted like she didn't hear me. "Percy, who's Annabeth?" Grover asked. He sounded like he was worried.

"What's wrong with you, Grover? Annabeth... our best friend!" I said anxiously. How could he not know who Annabeth was?

"What's wrong with you?" He said it like he thought I was crazy or something.

"Thalia, do you know where- " I stopped when I realized that Thalia wasn't there. This was weird. Yesterday, Thalia appeared out of nowhere, and today, at breakfast, she's just... gone. She probably just didn't want to listen to Grover think I was crazy. Or maybe there's another reason why she's gone...

I quickly got up from the table and I headed for wherever Chiron was. I looked everywhere until I found him washing his hands in the bathroom. What a strange place to find a god...

"Percy!" Chiron greeted me. He grabbed a paper towel, wiped off his hands, and held a hand out to me. It took me awhile to realize that he wanted me to shake his hand. I shook it.

"Chiron, there's something I need to talk to you about..." I said to him, looking at the ground because I was sad.

Chiron sighed. "Percy, if this has to do with the changes in your body, then-"

"Ew! No! I didn't come to talk about puberty!" I screamed back.

Chiron looked relieved. He asked me, "Okay then! What did you come to talk about?"

"Annabeth. Grover is acting like he's never heard her name before! Also, I have no idea where she's at!" It came out like word vomit.

"Annabeth? Who's Annabeth?" Chiron had the same look on his face that Grover did. Oh no.

"Not you too! Can you please give me a quest to find her?" I needed a quest.

"Percy, you've been in camp to long. I think you need some nice, fresh air. You need to have some time away from this camp. You have my permission to go on a quest. Not to find this Annabeth that you are talking about, but to try to get rid of your craziness." He sounded worried just like Grover.

What's wrong with everyone? Why can't they remember Annabeth? I don't know, but I have to find her!


	3. First Kiss

I started to run. I had no idea how to start my quest for Annabeth, or as Chiron said, a quest "to get some nice, fresh air." I just kept on running.

After awhile, I became exhausted, so I just dropped. I couldn't run any longer, so I tried to sleep, using a rock as a pillow, and a huge leaf from some tree as a blanket. It was very uncomfortable.

Before I had the chance to sleep, I heard footsteps. Part of me was hoping that it was Annabeth, and the other part was afraid that it was some monster. I opened my eyes to see Thalia staring at me.

"Hey Percy!" Thalia beamed. She looked happy to see me.

"Hi, Thalia. Where did you go yesterday? You were there, and then you just... just disappeared," I said, waiting for my answer.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I was sitting right across from you the whole time." Thalia replied. She acted like I was crazy, just like Chiron and Grover. What's wrong with them? They are the crazy ones!

"No you-" I cut myself off. There was no point in arguing. "So, why are you here anyway?"

"I came to help you on your quest!" Thalia was grinning.

"Oh, thanks," I mumbled. It didn't sound like I meant it. I really like Thalia, but she can be a _bit _too cheerful at times. "What should we do fir-" I didn't get to finish. Thalia interrupted me with a passionate kiss.

Oh my gods, this is amazing! Her lips were soft and luscious, and her lip gloss was cherry flavored. Sweet cherry. Ah...

She pulled away, ending the kiss. Why did it have to end?

"First kiss?" She asked me.

"Um... yeah." I replied, blushing. I had always been embarrassed how I'd never kissed a girl before, but now, everything had changed! I had my first kiss!

Her electric blue eyes locked with mine. Gosh, she is so beautiful. I think I'm in love... She quickly looked away and changed the subject of kissing, as if she thought it was wrong. "Percy, where do you think Annabeth is?"

"I don't know," I replied. I wish I knew.

"I don't know either, but I have a feeling that we should pray to our dads about it."

"Okay," I responded, but I wasn't sure that my dad knew where she was, either. _Hey Dad_, I prayed. _You probably know about my friend, Annabeth. She's missing. Please help us find her._ I was horrible at praying. My prayers were short and informal.

I glanced over at Thalia, and she was still praying. A few seconds later, I heard a boom in the sky. A lightning bolt flashed in front of us, and I jumped backwards and Thalia giggles.

"Percy, it's okay! Look." She pointed where the lightning bolt was. There were letters on the ground. It said, _ST. JOSEPH, MISSOURI_.

"Why St. Joseph, Missouri? What's that supposed to mean?" I asked. I was confused.

"I'm assuming that's where Zeus thinks Annabeth is," Thalia answered. Duh.

"What's in St. Joseph, Missouri? I remember studying something in 4th grade that happened in St. Joseph, but I don't remember," I stated, trying to remember.

"That's where the Pony Express started. In 1861, horses carried mail from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California." Thalia replied, acting like Annabeth.

"How did you know that?" I said.

"Annabeth," she stated simply.

"That explains it."

"So how are we going to get to St. Joseph?" I asked. I sounded scared.

She held my hand and squeezed it tightly. "I'm not sure."


	4. Blackjack to the Rescue!

As Thalia's grip on my hand loosened, I broke the silence. "Well, I guess we gotta find some way to get there."

"You're right." She pulled her hand away and started to think. "Hmm, we could... no. Or... nope. Maybe... that wouldn't work." She threw her hands up in the air. "I'm out of ideas!"

I thought for awhile. Here we were, in the woods, in New York. How were we going to get all the way to Missouri? Right then, it hit me. "Blackjack!"

"Blackjack? But we don't have any cards!" Thalia said.

"Not that Blackjack, Blackjack, a pegasus. He can fly us to Missouri." I said confidently.

"That would work. How could we contact this 'Blackjack', though?"

"I'm not sure. Usually he just com-" I was interrupted by a black pegasus landing right in front of us.

_BLACKJACK TO THE RESCUE!_ Blackjack proudly said.

"Well, that was strange. Is that Blackjack?" Thalia asked.

"Yeah, that's Blackjack, alright." I answered.

We hopped on the pegasus' back and he started flying.

_How did you know that we needed you, Blackjack? _I questioned Blackjack as we glided in the air.

_I'm just cool like that! No, I'm just kidding, haha... Chiron told me about your quest. He said "the higher the air, the fresher." I think it's kinda stupid that he let you on a quest just to let you get some fresh, non-camp air, _Blackjack admitted.

_You don't understand. It's not because of that. It's because nobody remembers Annabeth except for me and Thalia. We went on this quest to find her, _I insisted. I looked over at Thalia and she was asleep.

_How someone forget Annabeth? _Blackjack was just as confused as I was.

_I don't know. Kronos must have done something to them. That's the only reason I could think of,_ I said.

_Yeah, maybe. And speaking of reasons... I'm hungry!_

I looked down. There was a cucumber field. Do horses like cucumbers?

_I like cucumbers! _Blackjack responded as if he read my mind.

"Hey Thalia." I looked at her and she was still asleep. I nudged her with my arm, and her eyes opened, and she jumped towards me.

"Percy... ahhh!" She screamed in fear. She had almost fell off, but she grabbed onto me, and she was safe.

"Um... good morning." I said in a monotone voice. This was... awkward.

"Oh, sorry!" She got off of me. She got off and said, "So why did you wake me up?"

"Blackjack's hungry." I said.

"How did you know that?" Before I could answer, she said, "Oh yeah. You're Poseidon's son. You can talk to horses."

I nodded to her, confirming what she had just said. "Do you like cucumbers?"

"Like 'em? No... I love 'em!" She grinned.

_Okay, Blackjack. You can land in the field, now, _I said. Blackjack looked relieved.

He landed and he started nibbling on the cucumbers while Thalia picked some and I just sat. I wasn't hungry.

"You gonna eat?" Thalia said, biting off a piece of cucumber.

"Nah... I'm not hungry."

"Are you sure? You can have one of mine," She offered. She held one out to me.

"No, it's fine," I insisted. I would regret this later, but right now, I didn't really care.

As soon as they were done eating, we got back on Blackjack, and I asked him, _Better now?_

_You know it! _He smiled. Wait, do pegasi smile?

Once we were back in the air, I looked down and said, _Blackjack, do you know where we are? _

He pointed with his hoof to the right, and I saw the arch. We were in St. Louis. Ah, memories!

I decided it would be a good idea to get some sleep, so I told Thalia, "I'm going to catch some z's."

She nodded.


	5. The Mustang

(Thalia's Point Of View)

I looked over at Percy and he was fast asleep. Thank gods. I hated putting on this 'I'm-so-cheerful-all-the-time-and-life-is-just-a-pile-of-happiness' act, or whatever you wanna call it.

I nudged the pegasus thing, and pointed downwards, begging it to go down to the ground. (That's another thing I have to do, pretend that I'm not afraid of heights.) He seemed to understand me, and he landed on top of a McDonald's.

"I'll be right back," I told the flying horse as I rushed for the bathroom. I didn't even know if he understood me or not, but I didn't really care.

As soon as I walked into the Ladies' Room, I ran to a stall and started barfing. Ugh, I hated cucumbers. I glanced down at the green vomit. Ew. I flushed the toilet and went back outside.

"Percy." I poked him until he woke up.

"Thalia!" He grinned and stretched. "What do you want?" He didn't even notice that we were on top of a building.

"Well, I think we've come far enough with Blackjack's help. I think we should drive instead." I prayed that he would agree. I couldn't stand to be in the air any longer.

"But we don't have driver's licenses yet."

"I am almost sixteen." I said. Gods, Percy is so annoying. I have to stick with the plan, though. I gotta keep making him think that I'm on his side.

"Okay." He said, and shooed the pegasus away. "But where are we gonna get a car?"

I pointed to a 2010 Mustang, and he looked impressed. It was sitting in a parking lot across the street that belonged to a car dealership.

"Come on," I said, and grabbed his hand. He followed me inside the dealership.

A fat lady with bleach blonde hair was at the front desk. She was filing her nails. "Can I help you?" She said, not looking up.

"I want to test drive that Mustang out there," I replied, hoping that she didn't ask me how old I was.

She stopped filing her nails, reached into a drawer, and pulled out a silver key. "Here." She threw it on the desk and continued to file her nails.

"Thanks," Percy said, but she didn't respond.

I grabbed the key and ran outside to the car. After about twenty seconds, I got to the driver's seat and opened the door. I put the key in the slot and waited for Percy to get into the passenger's seat.

"Do you know where we are?" Percy asked as he buckled his seat belt.

"I think we're in Chillicothe!" I said with my fake cheerful voice.

"Where's that?" Percy questioned.

"About an hour and thirty minutes away from where we need to be." I said.

"Okay. I think I'll go back to sleep." He said. Yay!

I started driving.


	6. The Well

(Back To Percy's Point Of View)

I felt something shaking me, and I opened my eyes.

"Percy!" Thalia said. "We're in St. Joseph! Or as the locals call it, St. Joe!"

"Awesome," I said as I sat up from the fetal position. That's how I sleep.

"Let's go!" Thalia said. "The Pony Express stables are right outside of the car!" I was reminded me of Annabeth. Annabeth loved architecture, but she also loved historical places, too. I sighed.

" 'kay," I replied and got out of the Mustang.

As soon as I exited the car, I saw a short building with walls made of bricks and a big, light brown door (that was probably the door to the stables) that had words on it. With my dyslexia, it looked like it said, "YPNO SREXSP TLEBSAS", but after a few minutes, I deciphered it and it said, "PONY EXPRESS STABLES" above it.

Once I realized that Thalia was walking to the front door, I stopped looking at the building and followed.

There was an old lady at a desk. She looked a lot more happier than the lady at the car dealership, but something was strange. She wore a familiar black leather jacket, but I couldn't recall where I've seen her before. "Can I help you?" She said, with one of those smiles that only grandmas have.

"Yeah, we wanna look at the museum." I said, and laid the amount of money we needed to get in on the desk.

"Thank you! Come, children, follow me!" She said. Did we look like children? She walked about eight feet until she reached a doorway that led to a small, dark room. "You will watch a movie that is approximately fifteen minutes, and then you are free to look at the rest of the museum!"

I thanked her and she walked out of the room. A small TV in the corner of the room turned on, and Thalia and I sat down on a bench made of a log.

We sat there, speechless. We didn't bother watch the movie, we just sat. I was too anxious to find Annabeth. I had a feeling she was here.

Before the movie was over, we hopped out of our seats and ran to the door. Who cared about a stupid movie, anyway?

"Where are you going, Perseus Jackson?" Someone said in an angry tone. The old lady appeared at the door. I then realized who she was. Mrs. Dodds! She jumped up and went into her bird-like form.

I uncapped Riptide and quickly looked at Thalia. She was holding Aegis, and was looking at Mrs. Dodds in fear.

I closed my eyes and swung my sword at Mrs. Dodds's head, and it was easily chopped off. That was easy... maybe a little _too_ easy...

"Good job!" Thalia said, and she came over to me and hugged me.

I blushed and said, "Thanks, but we should look for Annabeth, now."

She agreed and we walked out of the room and into the room with a fake horse and some manikins that had 19th century style clothes on. I jumped and uncapped Riptide again when I heard unknown voices. Thalia giggled.

"Percy, do you realize that the voice is part of the museum? It's reenacting the time when the first horse of the Pony Express started on it's journey."

"Oh," I realized, and put Riptide away. I was embarrassed... again.

We walked past a fake stable with fake horses, a display case that was about sixty feet long, and a log cabin replica until we got to a well that was covered by glass. I had a strange feeling about that well...

There was a red old-fashioned pump near it that said, "Please Pump Slowly." As we got closer to the well, I became more curious about it.

I finally looked down at the glass, and into the well. You would never guess who I saw.


	7. Betrayal

It was Annabeth.

I got down on the floor, punching at the glass, trying to get her to notice me, but she didn't respond. She hand her hands on the wall as if she were feeling something. A few seconds later, she touched a certain spot on the walls on the well, and the glass disappeared.

I shouldn't have done it, but my first instinct was to jump down there to see her, and unfortunately I went with my gut.

As soon as I got down there, the glass reappeared, and Annabeth looked at me.

"Why did you do that?" She flicked my in the forehead with her index finger. "I finally found the **Δ**, and then you came down here, and the glass was there again!" She was obviously frustrated.

"What are you talking about?" I said cluelessly.

"We're in the Labyrinth, Percy!" Annabeth was _more_ than frustrated!

I randomly looked up and Thalia was looking down at me with an evil grin, and then her face was gone. I heard her walking away... What is she doing? _Help us out of here!_

I took my mind off of Thalia and asked, "What's the Labyrinth?"

"It's a humongous maze underground made by a guy named Daedalus, filled with all sorts of dangerous stuff. Do you understand, Seaweed Brain?"

"Um, sorta. How do we get out of here?" I looked around suddenly to see brick walls everywhere. It was a lot bigger than how it looked from in the museum.

"Well, that's what I've been trying to do! And I finally found a **Δ, **and you came down here, and it went away!" She looked me in the eyes, and her gray eyes looked almost red for some reason...

"That doesn't really answer my question!" I slammed back at her.

She took a deep breath to regain her calmness. "We have to find a **Δ, **and when we touch it, we can get out."

"'Kay. I understand now." I calmed my voice, just like hers.

We stood there in silence until I broke it. "How did you get down here, anyway?"

She looked down at the ground with a look on her face filled with mixed emotions, but the ones that were shining through the most were disgust, anger, and pure hatred. Once she was ready, she answered, "Thalia."

(: Sorry this chapter's so short... I had writer's block for awhile! And also, please send me your ideas for the story! It would really help! :)


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